Thoughts and commentary about the janitorial and office cleaning business.

10/02/2013

Lots of stolen identity at my competitor's office

Our Maricopa County sheriff has just arrested 24 employees of ProServe, a competitor in the Phoenix janitorial industry, according to an AP/TV 15 news report.

According to the article, "some of the suspects used the false IDs to buy homes, cars and to open credit card accounts, and 23 of the 24 people arrested are in the country illegally. Sheriff Joe Arpaio says research by deputies confirmed that120 employees of ProServe used fake identification to gain employment."

Sound a bit more serious than just the occasional individual slipping by E-Verify with a faked Social Security card.

This comes on the day that the Feds have closed down E-Verify, due to the government shutdown. Good thing we at CBN do not simply rely on E-Verify to confirm identity and work status; we also run an address search based on the SSN, so as to see where all around the country that particular SSN is holding down a job or establishing credit; and we require a current Arizona driver license of all applicants. The license is quite difficult to forge, if you know what to look for (holograms, micro-printing and all), and we are able to check the photo on the license against the photo the state has on file. This all fits right in with our participation in Homeland Security's IMAGE program - we confirm identity before hiring. I don't think much gets past us, and we've never had an employee picked up.

Getting back to the government shutdown: it almost seems that, as happened at the outset of the sequester, the various agencies are looking for areas to shut down that will have the most impact on folks, as opposed to saving money or man-hours. I notice that the National Zoo, for instance, has turned off the panda cam (quite popular since the cubs arrived). How many federal employees does it take to leave a stationary camera on, and feeding video? For that matter, one would think that the E-Verify process would be largely or entirely automatic, so no federal government employees involved. At least, that's the way a real world company would handle it.

We've offered janitorial services in Phoenix since 1974; hold the BBB's A-plus rating; and have long been in the forefront of the industry in environmentally sensitive cleaning for health, safety and security. Our office cleaning program can generally improve Indoor Air Quality, in the size range of most allergens, by a factor of 50%, as reflected in our ongoing IAQ sampling. We also furnish Green Seal certified recycled restroom paper products and janitorial supplies.